KDE Plasma on the Framework

Framework Laptop 13
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Thread for everyone using Plasma on their Laptops.
Which scaling option seems to work best. On 1440p 16:9 im used to using ~125% scaling. Would a different option be best since it is 3:2?

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Anecdotally, I’m using mine at 150% and fonts and UI elements appear about the same physical size as they do on my 13" MacBook Air running macOS. I haven’t seen any graphical issues.

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I’m using 100% here, guess my glasses are still working okay :slight_smile:

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Heres what I found works pretty well:

Touchpad:
Turn on “Tap To Click” makes things much easier, plus feels nice on the glass trackpad
I increased the Point Acceleration a little bit but not everyone would like that

Scaling:
125% Looks amazing, just increase the task bar a little bit.

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This is mainly just to introduce myself on the thread, but if anyone has observations about my configuration, I will welcome them.

I am using KDE Plasma in Ubuntu Studio, which is derived from Kubuntu. Version 21.10. I also have Xorg instead of Wayland, and I think that is a usual choice with KDE. I chose KDE instead of Gnome mostly because I like the Studio customizations, but I was also disappointed in the latest Gnome on another computer, as the project seems to be making my sorts of customization (e.g., moving the panel to the side and rearranging it a lot) very difficult now. Part of the Studio customization is use of the low latency kernel. I’m not sure what issues come from which aspects of these choices.

Things I have noticed that might be special to KDE Plasma:

  1. The login display which runs sddm sometimes refuses to recognize keyboard strokes for my password, although the pointer moves around with touchpad strokes. I solve this by opening a terminal window, finding the two sddm processes, and killing them.

  2. The switch from speakers to headphones is problematic. It seems to require manual setting each time. I haven’t found a way to make sound go to the speakers except to switch to headphones when they are plugged in. I use headphones infrequently, but I’m usually in a hurry, so I haven’t studied the problem very well.

  3. Recognition of USB storage devices is flakey. This may have more to do with the basic system than with KDE Plasma, but the automount functions appear to be part of KDE. Sometimes it is just very slow, sometimes I can trigger recognition by removing and replugging the power connector. A few times I’ve restarted, but I can’t tell whether that was really necessary.

  4. Of course, the Gnome software that I still use doesn’t integrate well: mostly Claws mail. Probably nothing can be done about that, unless the developers of the Gnome software choose to accommodate KDE better.